Get Organized with Emacs Org-mode

Use Emacs to create a flexible plain-text organizer and personal productivity system.

It is said that Emacs, that versatile toolbox for working with text,
is more than merely a text editor—it's a lifestyle. That's not just
hyperbole. In this article, I show you how to turn Emacs into
a flexible personal organizer and productivity system.

I started using Emacs for programming but soon discovered that it worked
well for nonprogramming writing tasks too. I began experimenting
with several modes that extend Emacs for writing notes and planning
projects. Though each one was useful in its own way, none of these
features or modes fit my style of working. Then I discovered Org-mode.

Org-mode is a new Emacs mode developed by Carsten Dominik. It
is designed for taking notes, outlining, writing, project planning,
maintaining to-do lists, time management and even publishing to
Web sites—all this using only Emacs and plain text.

Plain text? Why would anyone want to use plain text for doing all of the
above? Plain text offers several advantages. You are not locked in to a
file format or an operating system. You can edit plain-text files using
any available text editor. It is easy to copy and paste plain text from
and into e-mail messages. You can track changes in your document using a version
control system, such as CVS or Subversion. When I am writing, I find that
plain text offers one more advantage—it enables me to think better
and focus on my ideas, without the distractions of a word processor.

Getting Started with Org-mode

For this article, I assume that you have Emacs installed and have some
familiarity with using it. If you are not already an Emacs user, maybe
Org-mode will give you a good reason to start using it. (See
Resources for information on getting started with Emacs.)

Org-mode is included in GNU Emacs 22. You also can install Org-mode to
work with GNU Emacs 21 and XEmacs. I used GNU Emacs 22 and Org-mode 4.42
to write this article. If you already have Emacs on your system, check
whether Org-mode is available by typing the following command:

M-x org-mode

The above notation means press the meta key (Esc or Alt, depending on
your setup) followed by x, followed by org-mode, and then press the
Return (or Enter) key.

If Emacs displays “No Match”, it means you do not have Org-mode
installed. You will need to install org-mode manually or
install GNU Emacs 22. You can find precompiled binaries of GNU Emacs 22
for your Linux distribution and even for other operating systems. On
Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn), you can install GNU Emacs 22 (with Org-mode
4.56d) by running the following command:

sudo apt-get install emacs-snapshot

If you need to install Org-mode for GNU Emacs 21 or XEmacs, download
the latest version from orgmode.org, and look for the manual
that provides detailed installation instructions. (The Org-mode
documentation includes an excellent manual with more than 100 pages and
a handy reference card.) Once you have org-mode installed, run the
M-x org-mode command again. If Org-mode is installed correctly, Emacs
will display “(Org)” in its mode line area, and Org-mode will
be active.
If you are running Emacs in a graphical environment, you also should see
the Org pull-down menu (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Graphical User Interface Menu for Org-mode

Although Org-mode provides a graphical menu, in this article I refer
to Org-mode keyboard commands only. Once you get familiar with Org-mode
keystrokes, you will find them to be more efficient than the graphical menu.

Now, if you save your org files with the .org extension, they will
open up using Org-mode in Emacs. I recommend creating a directory to
keep all your Org files. I use ~/notes. Although you can invoke org-mode
for any text file, it's convenient to have them in one directory.

Outlining and Writing

Outlining is an effective technique for organizing thoughts, taking notes
or writing articles. Emacs has a built-in outline-mode that stores
text as entries. Each entry has a headline and a body. Entries can
be nested to create a tree of hierarchical information. Emacs uses
asterisks (stars) to denote the hierarchy of an outline tree. Lines that
do not begin with a star are considered to be the body of the headline
above it. In the following example, ** Apples is a
headline. Apples
are red is the body for the Apples headline.

Branches of a tree can be folded and hidden from view to make it easier
to navigate the tree and work on specific parts of the tree. When a
headline is folded, its body and subtree (all branches) are hidden from
view, and the headline is displayed ending with ellipses (three dots).

Comment viewing options

I have been nurturing an ambition to be a freelance writer for quite few years and also looking for suitable software for the purpose, but haven't gotten any. It seems to me that my searching stopped with Emacs that versatile toolbox for working with text. Though I haven't tried yet, but I hope it would meet my requirement.Solid Wood Computer Desks

org-mode is included with emacs 22.1.1 for windows, but has to be activated. You'll find the org-mode manual including installation howto following these steps: emacs -> help -> more manuals -> all other manuals -> (Org Mode) node of the info tree.

I started learning Emacs just to use org-mode and your tutorial is the first I read, thanks a lot, I'm sure I'll use org mode, goodbye strange and uncompatible software, hello pure text. Tks a lot.
João Brito

just close Emacs, download the zipped archive from http://orgmode.org/index1.html, extract it and open the new folder. Then copy the files contained in its subfolder "lisp" into the "lisp" subfolder of your Emacs installation.

org-mode is included with emacs 22.1.1 for windows, but has to be activated. You'll find the org-mode manual including installation howto following these steps: emacs -> help -> more manuals -> all other manuals -> (Org Mode) node of the info tree.

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